Forum: Author Hangout

I think it's a rather... joke on reinvention of bicycle theme.

In this case, going to YouTube for writing advice as something modern but overly complex. Or something such.

Perhaps it is a joke, but OTOH using the wrong word (Segway vs segue) in a post about unconventional resources makes it harder to trust said resources.

Now I personally have been following several of the BookTubers for years. There's a whole sub-community of writing resource related posters many of whom chronicle their journey from YouTuber to published author, details all the steps (and work) involved.

But everyone makes judgement based on too little information and to my mind making a homonym error in the first paragraph of a post is similar to a grammatical error in a book's summary: it isn't fair that I'm going to make judgements about the full work based on one error, but I'm going to do it anyway. And I'm not the only one.

Well, since I just learned the word "segue" from you now, I never considered it a possibility and interpreted what I read the best I could. Rereading it, I still don't find it very likely, although possible, and it could be just me, already attached to my interpretation.

sorry for the foe-par but I was very tired and in a hurry. the spell check suggestions went nowhere and I figured everyone would know the *nym I meant. not everyone here has English as a first language. there's a post by elsewhere bemoaning this handicap in fact.

I'm a voracious reader, but my ability to write does not come close to matching that drive. I know about glass houses but SMS speak is going to be the end of recognised English as far as anyone born pre millennium can likely attest to.

how well do you guys get by in say Deutsch or Françoise ? I was at one stage 'reasonably conversant' in both, as well as a few others. English is an odd language. impenetrable to the outsider yet descriptive with nearly endless nuance for a native.

I'm sorry if I gave offense, that was not an attack on you. My only languages are English and a smattering of book Latin. I had enough French in school that I generally know how to pronounce it and can usually pick out key vocabulary in text, but I certainly can't speak it or understand it when spoken.

At one point in my life I was somewhat fluent (used daily, but at a very young age) in Spanish (Castilian, not Spanish, a point that was oft repeated), but I lost all that when I moved back to Canada.

I've also studies a bit of linguistics and know bits and pieces of language structures and tendencies. Not enough to understand the languages in question, but enough that certain cultural difference make more sense (eg, the way that math works in the Chinese language helps explain why Chinese immigrants tend to do better in math-related subjects than their English-speaking peers).

Overall, though, I take your point.

[As an aside, "segue" entered English from Italian but was mostly used in reference to music. In the mid-20th century it migrated to film and from there to general usage.]

you're all goo. just pointing out this is the internet and not everyone has the 'standard' north American background

6. *Narrow the World*: Even epic landscapes can be simple.

6. Agree.

I disagree, at least in some cases.
If you write a stand-alone novel I agree.
But beware your readers and your publisher may want more books in this setting, sequels and prequels or just lightly related novels set in this universe.
It happened to one famous author (late Anne McCaffrey) with her "Pern" books.
Try to read them in the chronological order of the events on Pern. The inconsistencies are really jarring.
If you read the Pern books in the sequence she had written them, you will see she started with a narrowed world and struggled later on to expand this world.
As an example: in the earlier books there is no mention of the runners (humans running per foot to deliver messages), the only runners mentioned are runner beasts ridden by messengers.
I first read the books in the sequence she wrote them, eagerly waiting for the next instalment. I think I've already read most books at least twice when I finally tried to order the books chronologically for a reread.
I shouldn't have done this, because for me it took much of the fun out of it and I never got through the whole series with this approach.
Quite some time (years) later I started again reading her Pern books, but mostly the new books published in the meantime.
I know some critics scoffed about her son Todd joining in writing books in the Pern universe, but I liked his books too.

HM.
ps. I'm actually rereading the Harper Hall trilogy.

I'm with you HM! Love the Pern books, though I haven't read all the new ones.

The only response I'd make to your comment is to point out what SwitchBlayde mentioned above: This advice was for an author writing a first novel. I suspect trying to do that with an eye toward allowing for a vast series when the story becomes immensely popular is exactly what this advice addressed. The advice was to make the first book as doable as possible. Learn and get better after you've got one done.

well I've already broken or ignored all of those bar one already:

the story has two key protagonists with a support cast approaching 50, maybe a dozen of these could count as secondary but they become more important to the plot and word count as things advance.

no one is based on any recognisable facet of my own make up or past.

it's written in 3rd person. this draft at least.

I'm already very close to that 'magic 100K number and there is a signifiant amount still to write in this, the 1st year out of four. final word count is up for anyone to guess at this stage.

characters interact with each other differently, based both on where they are and who they're with. there are angels and arseholes on a spectrum, people have complex pasts

narrow the world; this is really the only one I've followed. the story only occurs in a handful of distinct locations, but with back story covers up towards 30 years. this back story is sparse and woven in sparingly to explain the lives of older characters who have actually lived and experienced many stages of life. the events of which bring people together in common complicated futures. just the way life 'works'.

having a listen as I write in here and poke at pieces of work. the voice is not terrible though the audio quality seems to be very slightly lower than Ideal. but this is right along the line of thought I was after.